April and May 2012 lots of Spring time work

Well it's May long weekend (Monday May 21st.)  Emma spent her second night at her Nana Susie's house because I am on call and Naomi was working till midnight.  We have had a busy couple of months.  In the pictures you will see Emma had a dance recital and Nana Shirley came down just for that.  There were two shows and Ambrose stayed with us and was able to see both.  We had a great weekend with him staying over for one night.(thank goodness Nana Shirley was there to comfort him in the middle of the night, he was calling out for nana)

I was also busy at our land, you can see I hired my excavator friend,Rob, to do more work.  He made a new driveway that leads to a new location where we plan to build a small cabin.  It is right in a patch of bush with some more "mature" trees.  He also cleared all the trees and brush from the trails we had started in December with my friends Dean's dozer.     Last week I went out to see how the trails were looking and I could see a large fire in the direction of my land.  Once I was there I could see the water bombers flying back and forth overhead, getting water from the lake.  I dragged my newly acquired 'spike drags", they worked awesome. They help level the dirt on the trails and also catch small tree roots and pull them clear.  Lots of work still but at least now there are nice trails to four corners of the property, approximately 2-3miles of trails now cleared.  On my way home I picked up a set of old horse drawn disc harrows that I will be able to use in the open areas to break the ground for planting a crop.

Here is River at  the "old" site where the outhouse and camper are still sitting. I hope to use the disc harrows here to work the land and hopefully plant something

Water bomber flying in the distance, quad with spike drag.

On mother's day weekend Emma helped me plant  some beans and peas we got from our visit with Leo and while putting those in I decided to put in the entire garden.  We also have corn,carrots, potatoes and cucumber.

Me and Leo at his place.  Emma took the picture.
Here is a link to more photos click here

March 4th,snowmobiling and sledding

Well we got off to an early start this morning when Emma woke up requesting "Farm Animal Pancakes".  They were a big hit.  I then took River out in the yard to get the snowmobile going and take her for a run.

After a snowmobile ride we loadded up the sleds and snowmobiled over to the slide on the hill.  Not sure what we'll do to cap off such a great Sunday but we'll see.

Here is a link to a few more pictures...click

Fishing at Whitemouth Lake

Well I got the entire family packed up on Saturday (Feb. 4th) and we headed out to Whitemouth Lake for a fishing trip and quick visit to our land (outhouse mainly)
  A hydro buddy with his two sons were already out on the ice at another friend's ice shack.  It was about -3c and just a great day to be out on the ice.  They apparently killed a few days ago but we weren't as lucky.  I caught a big jackfish but Naomi caught her first fish "ice fishing fish" ever. 

 Four of the live minnows were not used and are now living in "Friendly's" old aquarium and Emma is so excited to have new fish. She didn't even care that her line didn't catch anything, she said "as long as we had fun, right?" They survived three days now so we'll see how it goes.

I fried up that lone pickerel on Sunday night in the same batter as the Christmas fish fry and suddenly Naomi is asking about how much ice augers cost, and maybe building an ice shack. (!?!?)  my plan worked perfectly :) 


Here are a few more pics from January and February.  click

Winter 2011/2012

This post will have pictures of my hunting trip with Dave in November, some of ski trails being cleared in December and also the Christmas visit to Manitoba by Des and Emile.

Realized more pictures are on another camera, standby for additions to this blog and Picasa site.

Here we are on January 7th, just enough snow for River to pull Emma in the sleigh. We went to see the new wooden slide structure but it doesn't have the slide part built yet.

Here is Emma just before Christmas on skates at the rink for the first time.  I wasn't allowed out on the ice without a helmet so she went out all by herself for an hour and a half.

River and Emma with the new reflective leash.

Here is the link to more photos

July camping in the backyard and my birthday garden gnome Emma picked out

While Naomi went to a friends house for a campfire, Emma and I decided to have our own and set up a tent for the night.  It was a huge success.  She checked out the fire for a bit and "wished upon a star" but was too excited about the tent so we went to bed in there early.

She couldn't sleep because of all the night noises and whenever I looked over at her she was just grinning ear to ear in the dark.  So I ran into the house for an extension cord and her fan and by the time I got back two minutes later she was out. 

When I got home tonight I was greeted by a garden gnome that Emma had picked out for me for my birthday.  I love it, I think it's kinda what I'll look like when I'm old with a crazy huge garden out back with no lawn.

Here are a couple more pics, check out the captions for more info on each photo.  click

July visit to Clearwater and The Pas

         Well we made it back on Friday from a great two weeks at Clearwater Lake. We had good weather, some wind and rain the first weekend but some really hot days by the beach.  Lots of visitors to the cabin.  Aunty Wendy, Marni, Tamara, Merrick and Matthew,  Blair and Leslie and the whole crew plus the O'toole kids (Jesse and Matt) and of course Halle came for a sleepover one night. 

We got mom and dad moved out completely from 254 Head Ave. for good and helped get the cabin ready for semi-permanent summer living (ie:organizing all that extra stuff, hot water running etc...)  Dad and I had a good sauna at Steve and Meg's house (under contruction) with Jade and Blair.  Plus a couple of nights we headed out to Cormorant for an evening of fishing off the bank. A few pontoon boat rides on the SS Minnow thrown in here and there made for a great week.

I have hundreds more pictures on mom and dad's camera that I will upload later this summer that include pontoon boat rides, quad rides and fishing at Cormorant.click here for some pics.

Emma's birthday month!--the countdown was on

Emma had her Spongebob Squarepants calender up and she was crossing off the days leading up to her birthday.  Naomi was working that weekend so she took Emma and her best friend/neighbor, Halla, to the swim park and then to the local fair in Steinbach.  They had a blast swimming and then went on most of the rides at the fair.  They only had to stop a ride once for Emma  because she was squished in the corner of the tilt-a-whirl.

On birthday Saturday we drove Naomi into Winnipeg for her shift and then Emma and I had special McDonald's breakfast and play at the playland.  She is getting very comfortable climbing everywhere and using all the slides. (but insists on wearing her long sleeve coat for the slide due to a previous elbow injury :(  )  After that we headed to Andrew's to help take his dismantled deck and hot tub to the dump.

 

  It took two HUGE loads but we did it.  Afterwards we cut the rest of a large maple down so we wouldn't have to cut it down over top the new deck.  Then a visit to Uncle Dave's for a beer and visit with Renee and Dan. Emma couldn't wait because she knew they were bringing a birthday present from Nana and Papa Streit.  We had a short visit and then headed back to Mitchell and made fresh birthday cupcakes.

Here she is with one of her birthday presents, a Siamese Fighting fish that she named, "Friendly".  She especially likes to feed him and place a special floating mirror in the tank to get him a riled up.

 Also this month I got the garden in around the fifth due to late freeze and wet conditions.  The hops, wildflowers and raspberry bushes all survived the winter and are looking great.  As well my neighbor Brett (Halla's dad) has been helping me chip away at the deck.  As I write this I can report that the supports,deck boards and side capping are all in place and screwed down.  We just have to decide now on stair placement and then we can install the railing and stairs.  Here is a link to some more pictures from this month CLICK HERE